Necromancer

[ronnyfire]

A necromancer base class that focuses on controlling a single powerful skeleton.


Necromancer

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Minion points
1st|
0|
0|
0|
2|Minion,Steal soul, Soul ability|15
2nd|
1|
0|
0|
3||20
3rd|
1|
1|
1|
3|Soul ability|25
4th|
2|
1|
1|
4||30
5th|
2|
1|
1|
4|Undead sight, Soul ability|35
6th|
3|
2|
2|
5||40
7th|
3|
2|
2|
5|Soul ability|45
8th|
4|
2|
2|
6||50
9th|
4|
3|
3|
6|Soul ability|55
10th|
5|
3|
3|
7|Sense the departing soul|60
11th|
5|
3|
3|
7|Soul ability|65
12th|
6|
4|
4|
8||70
13th|
6|
4|
4|
8|Soul ability|75
14th|
7|
4|
4|
9||80
15th|
7|
5|
5|
9|Soul ability|85
16th|
8|
5|
5|
10||90
17th|
8|
5|
5|
10|Soul ability|95
18th|
9|
6|
6|
11||100
19th|
9|
6|
6|
11|Soul ability|105
20th|
10|
6|
6|
12|Reconstruct|110[/table]

Minion:

Minion creation rules:

To create a skeletal minion the necromancer needs to spend one day uninterrupted working, with the skeleton of one humanoid creature.

The Necromancer begins creation with a skeleton of your choice below, and adds effects to the skeleton point for point as listed below.

As long as the skeleton is alive, the necromancer transfers half damage he takes to the skeletal minion.

Starting skeleton stats:
10 hp per necromancer level
0 BAB
12 armor class (2 natural armor)

Starting skeleton body:
{table=head]Starting Skeletons|strength|dexterity|wisdom|charisma
tiny|
6|
14|
10|
10

small|
8|
12|
10|
10

medium|
10|
10|
10|
10

large|
12|
8|
10|
10

huge|
14|
6|
10|
10[/table]

Skeletal enhancements:
{table=head]Effects|Point cost|Description
Strength boost|
1+|Increase strength
Dexterity boost|
1+|Increase dexterity
Wisdom boost|
1+|Increase wisdom
Natural armor|
5+|Increase natural armor
Opposable thumbs|
5|Simple weapon prof.
Long legs|
3+|Increase move speed
Base attack bonus|
1+|Increase BAB(max class level)
Reform|
5|Heal when bludgeoned
Claws|
2|Gain or increase natural attack
Disease|
4|Sicken a clawed enemy
Spell|
1+|Gain a spell 1/day
Scary|
4|Frightful presence[/table]

Strength boost:
Cost: 1+
Effect: Increase the strength of your skeletal minion. Spend 1 point/strength till 20 strength, 2 points/strength till 30, 3 points/strength till 40, etc..

Dexterity boost:
Cost: 1+
Effect: Increase the Dexterity of your skeletal minion. Spend 1 point/Dexterity till 20 strength, 2 points/Dexterity till 30, 3 points/Dexterity till 40, etc..

Wisdom boost:
Cost: 1+
Effect: Increase the Wisdom of your skeletal minion. Spend 1 point/Wisdom till 20 strength, 2 points/Wisdom till 30, 3 points/Wisdom till 40, etc..

Natural armor:
Cost: 5
Effect: Increase the Natural armor of your skeletal minion. Spend 5 points/Natural armor.

Opposable thumbs:
Cost: 5
Effect: Give your skeletal minion Simple Weapon Prof.

Long legs:
Cost: 3
Effect: Increase the land speed of your skeletal minion by 10ft per 3 points spent.

Base attack bonus:
Cost: 1
Effect: Increase the base attack bonus of your skeletal minion by 1 per point spent, to a maximum of your class level.

Reform:
Cost: 5
Effect: When the skeletal minion is hit by a bludgeoning attack, you may have it restore 1d4 hit points to itself after the damage is dealt. You may gain this multiple times. Its effects stack.

Skeletal Weaponry:
Cost: 2
Effect: Your skeletal minion gains a natural claw attack with each hand, which deals 1d4+strength modifier damage. For 2 more points, you may gain a natural slam attack, which deals 1d6+strength modifier damage. You choose which natural attack is primary, and which is secondary. Every 2 points spent afterwards increases the size category for damage dice dealt by the natural attacks by 1, or if they can not upgrade any longer it adds 2 damage.

Diseased Claws:
Cost: 4
Effect: You may make your skeleton's claws tainted with a spell-based disease, causing every hit with the natural claw attacks to also cause the target to make a Fortitude save, DC 10 + rank of diseased claws + damage dealt in the claw attack, to avoid being sickened for 4 rounds per rank of Diseased Claws.

Spell-Like Ability:
Cost: 1 + Spell level
Effect: You may give your skeletal minion a spell that has a spell-level less than or equal to half your Necromancer class level, maximum 3rd level spells. The chosen spell becomes a spell-like ability for your skeleton, which it is able to use once per day. You may purchase the same spell multiple times; if you do, it simply increases the number of usages per day by one.

Scary:
Cost: 4
Effect: Give your skeletal minion the Frightful presence ability upon each full attack, save DC being (10 + skeletal minions charisma modifier).

Soul ability's:

Soul steal:

The Necromancer can steal the souls of the dieing!
If you touch someone who is below 0 hp, you may drain the soul of the target, there body dies and you gain a soul. Target gets a will save of 10 + necromancer level + intelligence modifier. Souls are used for Necromancer's Soul ability's. A Necromancer may hold a number of souls equal to double his Necromancer level.

The Necromancer gains a Soul ability every odd level. The Necromancer may take a single soul ability up to 5 times, increasing its effects each time.

Soul ability's:
{table=head]Ability|Soul Cost|Description
Heal|
1|1d6+1per level heal, skeleton only
Strike|
1|1d6+1per level damage spell
Enlarge Skeleton|
2| Increase skeleton size by 1
Fear|
1/3/5|Shaken,Frighten or Panick all near opponents[/table]

Heal:
Cost - 1 Soul/Rank
Action - Standard
Range - Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 ranks)
Save - N/A

Effect - Throw a soul into undead you control, healing them for ((1d6+2)/ Heal rank) + (1/Necromancer level.)

Strike:
Cost - 1 Soul/Rank
Action - Standard
Range - Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./rank)
Save - Will Half

Effect - Taint and throw a soul at an opponent. Make a touch attack and deal ((1d6+2)/ Strike rank) + (1/Necromancer level.)

Enlarge Skeleton:
Cost - 2 Souls/Rank
Action - Standard
Range - Touch
Save - N/A
duration - 5 Rounds/Rank

Effect - Channeling the souls within. The Necromancer enlarges any undead it controls by one size category/ rank, increasing its strength by 2/rank as well.

Strike:
Cost - 1/3/5 Soul(s)/Rank
Action - Standard
Range - 30ft + 5ft/Rank (Centered on caster)
Save - Will Negates
duration - 2 Rounds/ rank

Effect - Thrusting a cluster of souls onto the ground, all opponents nearby tremble as the souls disperse. If the Necromancer releases 1 soul/rank all opponents are Shakened, if 3 souls/rank all opponents are Frightened, if 5 souls/rank all opponents are Panicked. Add a +2 to the save DC/rank.


Undead sight:
The Necromancer can instantly tell if anything he is able to see is undead in any way.

Sense the departing soul:
A Necromancer can sense the souls of the nearly dead without so much as seeing them. The Necromancer can sense any living creature that is below 0hp within 60 ft.

Reconstruct:
The Necromancer may spend an hour to reallocate all the points in his skeletal minion.

[Uthug]

Wow. Really cool. How do you determine its starting size?

Edit: Just saw that it was a trade-off of strength for dex. Why does it cost so much to increase natural armor?

[Caracol]

Nice, but how about keeping some necromantic spells too? Maybe less spells for day compared to a regular wizard, or just a limited selection, or a starting spell progression from level 5 or 6...

[Uthug]

Is there any cap on the amount you can buff its stats? Well seriously, look at lvl 1, you get 15 points which you can use to get its str to 24 with some leftover. Also, I'm not sure on what the stats for the skeleton is, maybe I'm missing something?

[StoryKeeper]

Very cool. I love the idea of a necromancer wandering around with his single uber powered undead.

A few things:
-I think a few spells might be a nice addition. The skeleton is potentially very powerful, but if the necromancer gets separated from his creation, he's just a commoner, and they tend to have high mortality rates.
-The minion should probably be unturnable, or at least have turn resistance considering the emphasis the class has on the minion.
-Perhaps the necromancer could gain a few benefits of a familiar's link (share spells and a variation of empathic link for instance.) Of course, this is mostly only useful if you give the class spells. How do you control the minion? Same as most undead?
-What happens if the minion gets destroyed? Perhaps the minion could be reformed after a certain number of days like a lich. Otherwise, you'd either have to give the class a way of acquiring a new minion, or he'd turn into an NPC with a few perks as soon as his (melee focused) skeleton bit into more than it could chew.

[ronnyfire]

haha, thanks for pointing out the details i forgot to type :D

ill fix it now

[ronnyfire]

i made this class knowing i wasn't going to add spells to it xP

so sorry to all you spell people, but nope!

also there is a prestige class that me and a friend made that fits with this or any other casters who can raise dead.

[Magnor Criol]

I like the idea of this class, but I think I'd change the name. "Necromancer" implies someone who uses necromantic magic - actually casting spells - and while this guy does technically utilize necromantic magic, since you don't give him spellcasting he doesn't really do so in the way that the name "necromancer" suggests.

I don't have much of a suggestion for a replacement, though, sorry.

[StoryKeeper]

Perhaps "Bone Charge" as in the skeleton is kind of a minion/body guard, and the character himself is the "charge" of said bodyguard.